Reuse – Rethinking Packaging

Converting 20% of plastic packaging into reuse models is a USD 10 billion business opportunity that benefits customers and represents a crucial element in the quest to eliminate plastic waste and pollution.

New Plastics Economy: Reuse – Rethinking Packaging

This work provides a framework to understand reuse models, identifies six major benefits of reuse, and maps 69 reuse examples. Based on an evaluation of more than 100 initiatives and interviews with over 50 experts, it aims to inspire and help structure thinking. It provides a basic description of how different reuse models work as well as typical implementation challenges.

It is not intended to be a detailed how-to implementation guide. The focus of this initial work is on packaging solutions in business-to-consumer (B2C) applications. While there certainly are many reuse opportunities in business-to-business (B2B) applications, these are generally better understood and adopted at scale already.

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Lead Philanthropic Partner

Philanthropic funders

Core Partners

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation works in Education & Training, Business & Government, Insight & Analysis, Systemic Initiatives and Communications to accelerate the transition to a circular economy.

The New Plastics Economy is an initiative to build momentum towards a plastics system that works. Applying the principles of the circular economy, it brings together key stakeholders to rethink and redesign the future of plastics, starting with packaging.